Dustin Long

From Daytona to California, Dustin Long covers the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
Read all of his stories on PilotOnline.com's Auto Racing channel. And follow him on Twitter.

Category: NASCAR

■ 05 January 2009 | 9:34 AM

Racing as relevant as bowl games?

Read an interesting piece by Michael Wilbon of the Washington Post where he lamented the demise of the New Year's Day bowl experience. While I'm sure many Va. Tech folks were excited and pleased, was there the excitement on the national scale?

Got me thinking to what folks might think about the NASCAR schedule. Now, I'm sure many of you are starving for racing, hate that testing was canceled this year and can't wait for Daytona next month, but I wonder once the season starts is it as easy to go do something else when a race is on as Wilbon said it was to walk away from his TV on New Year's Day and ignore the bowl games?

Yes, the Daytona 500 and Coca-Cola 600 are the big ones (Indianapolis was only the biggest joke this past season). But what else is there that grabs your attention if you're not at the track? What races can you do without? What races do you wish there were more of on the schedule?

If you're walking away from the TV more, what would bring you back?

I'm also wondering if Richmond might be gaining on Bristol in popularity. Bristol still remains the most popular but you certainly hear a lot of fans complain about side-by-side racing(!!! -- isn't that what folks want at tracks) there instead of seeing three hours of bumper cars. Richmond still provided that this past season with Kyle Busch and Dale Jr. and Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch. Which track would you rather go to _ Bristol or Richmond _ if you had tickets to them but couldn't go to both?

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richmond/bristol

Submitted by yankeegranny on Tue, 01/06/2009 at 9:47 pm.

My husband and I went to the Richmond fall race this past year. We bought season tickets for Richmond for this year. We love the racing and the facility. As far as Bristol is concerned; I seem to remember Kurt Bush making a snow angel. Wasn't that the Spring race at Bristol? Too cold for me. I'll watch that one on tv. As for all the complaints about the COT, the quality of racing, the politically correct drivers, etc. Get over it; it is what it is and all the complaining in the world isn't going to change. If you don't like it watch Monster trucks or the x-games.

What to change?

Submitted by CrazyTedVB on Mon, 01/05/2009 at 1:01 pm.

What would make me watch racing again? Get rid of all the gimmick rules that were put in place to improve racing that did nothing but ruin it. Put the races back on earlier in the day. Putting the races late in the afternoon just to appeal to the west coast does nothing for me but make me not watch. Let the people who can qualify to race, enter the race. Don't give any special treatment to people just because they are a star. If you are fast enough to race, you get to race. PERIOD.

TV and racing

Submitted by mg30737 on Mon, 01/05/2009 at 11:18 am.

The biggest thing that would get me to watch more racing on tv , is to have FOX do the whole season . The coverage for the second half sucks big time .